The equipment used for in-line manufacture of absorbent products, such as diapers, sanitary napkins, adult incontinent pads and the like, is generally referred to as converter equipment and the process is generally referred to as converting. The converter equipment processes separate rolls of stock material into the composite absorbent product. The converter equipment generally comprises stations for manufacturing the composite absorbent product as follows:                (a) An absorbent core forming station comprising a hammermill is fed by pulp roll stock, such as cellulosic material with or without superabsorbent. The hammermill fiberizes the pulp, and a drum form or flat screen then forms the fiberized pulp. Alternatively, the absorbent core material can be supplied in roll form.        (b) A top sheet station supplies a top sheet or coverstock layer comprising a nonwoven, such as spunbond polypropylene. The top sheet is unwound from a roll and applied to the core layer.        (c) A bottom sheet station for supplying a liquid-impervious backsheet, such as polyethylene film, which is applied to the top sheet/core combination.The absorbent product is a composite comprising a top sheet or cover stock, an intermediate core layer of absorbent material, and a bottom sheet or back sheet of impervious film. Most converter equipment includes devices for adding a variety of options, such as elastic waistbands and legbands, tab applicators, frontal tape applicators, transfer layers, and the like.        
A characteristic common to all converter equipment and processes is that they use only roll stock to form the layers of the absorbent product. The roll stocks are separately manufactured into rolls, typically off site, and then transported to the site of use. These rolls are processed by the converter equipment to form multiple layer absorbent products.
Converter equipment typically comprises a large complex laminating machine which requires significant horizontal and vertical plant space. The complex equipment requires constant attention and fine tuning. Also, converter equipment generally produces a one-line output so the unit output is directly proportional to the line speed. Accordingly, the converter equipment must operate at extremely high speed, such as at line speeds of 700 to 1200 ft./min., to be economical.
As the converter equipment handles only preformed roll stock, it has a serious operational disadvantage. That is, once the multiple rolls are installed, the composition, properties or dimensions of the roll stocks cannot be changed. In order to produce two different types of absorbent products, or absorbent products with different properties, the converter must be shut down and a new roll or rolls substituted for the existing roll or rolls. For these reasons, it would be desirable to eliminate one or, preferably, more of the conventional roll stocks and form different layers of an absorbent composite product in-line.